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It has been awhile since I have written, and even longer since I have written consistently. I am going to try to break that trend. They may be short and sweet writings about what I am thinking about sports in that day, but I want to get constant content on the site. So, here we go

Obviously, this weekend was a huge weekend for most sports fans because of the Jamaican 2-man Bobsled Team’s qualification for the 2014 Winter Olympics! It is actually a big deal, considering it will be the first time since 2002 that the Jamaicans have qualified for the Bobsled event. They have already received $80,000 in donations to help them make the trip to Sochi.

Jamaican 2-man Bobsled Team (businessinsider.com)

Now onto the sporting events you thought I was going to talk about at first, the AFC and NFC Championship games.

This is one of those few years that you can actually say the two best teams made it into their respective conference games. In the AFC, there is not a lot talent, in all honesty. The Patriots had a lot of holes, but they had less holes than everyone, but the Denver Broncos. Bill Belichick was able to mask many of the Patriots flaws on defense, and Tom Brady can make a star out of any white guy who is willing to get hit by much bigger human beings, Julian Edelman and Wes Welker. With that being said, they clearly did not match up to the Denver Broncos this Sunday. They were dominated in all facets of the game. On defense, the Patriots were unable to put any pressure on, who should be the first unanimous MVP in NFL History, Peyton Manning. No Patriot recorded a QB hit, and Manning recorded 400 yards of passing on 43 attempts with 2 touchdowns. Patriots looked out of it from the get go, and that is why the Broncos are the AFC Champions

In the NFC, there was a brawl for the ages. I wasn’t able to watch the first half, but I do know that the 49ers blew that game in the second half. As you may know if you follow me on Twitter, I got caught up in the Richard Sherman interview reactions, and the Seattle fans’ disgusting lack of sportsmanship after Navarro Bowman‘s gruesome injury. After having a day to think about what happened, here is what I think should be remembered from that game…

Colin Kaepernick cost the 49ers that game with some incredibly poor throws and a costly fumble in the 4th quarter.

49ers’ defense was the only reason Kaepernick had a chance to redeem himself on the final drive.

Kaepernick would have redeemed himself had Richard Sherman turned his head a second later. That’s a touchdown, and the 49ers are the NFC Champions.

Looking past all of the off-field antics, Richard Sherman is a beast and should not be thrown to.

Peyton Manning after yet another disappointing postseason loss against the Baltimore Ravens on January 12, 2013 (Photo Cred: AP)

Yes, temperature can cause of big difference with Peyton. Remember Peyton only put up 21 points on an AWFUL Baltimore Ravens’ defense in a game that was 13 degrees. I know 13 and 32 degrees is a huge difference, but 2013-14 Seattle Seahawks’ Defense is a huge difference between the 2012-13 Baltimore Ravens’ Defense. Peyton doesn’t think the cold has an affect on his game, but his playoff record and record outdoors in poor conditions, says otherwise.

The biggest argument against Biggio is he never had a Hall of Fame season. I would agree with this statement, but Biggio’s overall career was great. He averaged 105 runs for twenty years… TWENTY! That is crazy. He also has a career bWAR (WAR as determined by BaseballReference.com) of 64.9. Thats better than current Hall of Famers Andre Dawson (64.4), Willie McCovey (64.4), and Harmon Killebrew (60.4), among others. He also played catcher, outfield, and second base over the course of his career. Oh yeah, he also got 3,000 hits.

Among position players, he is 37th in career bWAR (79.5), and he managed to do that in just 15 seasons. He also has the 21st best career OPS of .948 to go along with 202 career stolen bases. He averaged 115 RBIs over his 15 seasons and had a career .408 OBP. I think that it would an embarrassment for the BBWAA to not elect him into the Hall of Fame because it doesn’t add up. Maybe, he was just that good, and he wasn’t appreciated fully because of his steroid competitors.

This is REALLY easy. He was the best offensive catcher of all time. He has 38 more homers than any catcher in the history of Major League Baseball. He had a career .308 batting average while taking a beating as a catcher. He has not been listed in any steroid report. It shocks me that he probably won’t get elected again.

84.696% career stolen base percentage that led to 808 stolen bases. His 69.1 bWAR is 70th all time among position players. He wasn’t a power hitter, which is what everyone loves. However, he had a career .385 OBP over the course of 23 years, and averaged 102 runs over those seasons. He should get in.

He should be unanimous. I should have to explain why, but I will. First, his name is Greg, great name. He was one of the most efficient pitchers and did it all with great accuracy. He wasn’t a power pitcher, but he knew exactly where to pitch the ball and could put it there no problem. He was also willing to give up homers to set up hitters months in advance. Check out this story about Maddux. And this one. He was kinda accurate.

He is 24th in career bWAR among pitchers at 82.7. He almost got 300 wins, 270. He almost got 3,000 K’s, 2,813. He pitched in the toughest division of his time in the AL East. He also pitched in some of the most hitter friendly park in the league throughout the entire league. He should get in before Jack Morris and if Jack Morris gets in, it will be an embarrassment. Then again, Mussina left the Orioles… so he still sucks.

Until someone decides that anyone who used steroids cannot be in the Hall of Fame and they remove them from the ballot, you have to vote for them. These guys both have an argument for being the greatest player of all time with their career statistics.

Barry Bonds is the career leader in home runs. He is also the ONLY person in the 500 home run, 500 stolen bases club, and the only person in the 400, 400 club of those same statistics. He is 2nd in career bWAR among position players at 162.5, only .7 behind Babe Ruth. I just can’t have him not on my Hall of Fame ballot. He was the greatest of his era.

Clemens is in the same boat. He is 3rd in career bWAR among pitchers at 139.4. 7 Cy Young Awards, 4,672 strikeouts, and a 3.12 ERA in an offensive era. It is really hard to argue against that career.

I know a lot of people don’t know what it feels like to have a beard, but let me hit you with some knowledge. Whenever you have a beard in the winter, everyone and their mother is like, “Nice beard, you growing it out to stay warm in the winter.” Or, “You should be in Duck Dynasty.”
For me, I am not growing a beard to stay warm for the winter. I do it for two reasons:

I’m too lazy to take the 20 minutes to shave it.

I like petting it when I am thinking.

Anyway, I ended up learning that the beard does keep you warm during the winter. It helped me while I cleared my driveway.

I’m not major league GM or high-level front office executive even if I wish I was, or I think I could do a better job, but I don’t think Kevin Towers is doing a great job. I thought that they gave up too much for Mark Trumbo, and I think they did it again. Trading a prospect that is projected to be an above-average hitter and an average defender at third base to get a “proven closer” is not the brightest of moves. I will say Addison Reed got better last year, but not good enough to warrant this deal. He gives up roughly fly balls at a 45% clip, which is 10% higher than the league average. Chase Stadium is a hitter friendly stadium that allows more triples and doubles that the average stadium, 81% and 6% respectively. I think Reed is going to struggle in a park with a bigger outfield, and he might be running to back up third and home more than anyone in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ organization wants. I could be really wrong about this, but I think Matt Davidson was too much for Reed.

Rangers are all aboard the Choo Choo Train! (yes, I think I am hilarious). The Rangers gave the OBP machine 7 years and $130 million on this new deal. He is definitely a good replacement for Nelson Cruz in right field, and with the influx of cash coming in from the new TV deals, I suspect the Choo deal will not look so ridiculous in a couple of years. Disregarding his 2011 down year, he has been a dominant offensive outfielder who can get on base at nearly a .400 clip. That includes his horrendous statistics against left-handed pitchers. He owns a .310 wOBA against left-handed pitchers, but in the past two years, it has been worse. In 2013 with the Reds, his wOBA against lefties was a mere .292, and with the Indians in 2012, it was only .282. According to Fangraphs, the site that creates and manages these advanced statistics, .310 is below average wOBA, but .290 and lower is classified as “Awful.” That will be Choo’s downside now, and it will only get worse as he ages and loses speed and hitting skills. If I am the Rangers, I hope I can fix it with some hitting instruction, but I am expecting it to be below average or worse. The Rangers are probably going to need a right-handed bench bat that can handle left-handed pitching someone like Jonny Gomes of the Red Sox. However, I think Choo will be elite against right-handed pitchers so it won’t be a big issue until they face David Price, CJ Wilson or Jon Lester in a big postseason game… then it will be a BIG issue.

Masahiro Tanaka gets posted

The next big thing is coming over from Japan. From Hideo Nomo to Ichiro to Hideki Matsui to Yu Darvish, there have been stars that started in Japan, but with every star comes a bust like Daisuke Matsuzaka, among many others. Masahiro Tanaka seems to be built like a major league pitcher. The 6′ 2″, 205 pound right-handed pitcher has the build, but does he have the stuff? Well, he definitely has it for the Japanese league. Over the past 3 years, he hasn’t had an ERA over 2 with the highest being 1.87 in 2012. However, his K/9 has dropped by a strikeout each of those years as well, ending with a 7.8 K/9 in 2013. If that was done in the major leagues, it would have been considered above average, but in Japan, it doesn’t impress me that much. I would be a little worried about this guy turning into the elite pitcher that some people expect him to be. Some people expect him to be a star with his devastating splitter and hard fastball, but I would think of him as a number 2 on a good staff. If the Angels signed him, he would definitely be a number 2 behind Jered Weaver. That is probably my best comparison. I think some teams think that he will grow into a true number 1, like Darvish, but I would be wary. However, we’ll see when a team signs him.

Now for the teams that are vying for his services. With the new posting system between the Nippon Baseball League and Major League Baseball, multiple teams can negotiate with Tanaka if they meeting the 20 million dollar posting fee. The team that signs him will not get the posting fee back, while all the other teams will. Because of this new system, there will be multiple teams going after him, and I will classify them as Wild Cards, Sleepers, Inside Trackers, and Desperate Big Money Spenders. After giving a case for each, I will offer up my guess as to where he will end up.

Wild Cards

Los Angeles Dodgers

Philadelphia Phillies

I list these two teams because they truly are wild cards (and masters of karate and friendship for everyone).

Ruben Amaro Jr. could surprise and go get Tanaka, so they can add some type of youth. The Dodgers don’t really need him, but they have so much money they might just throw it at him and try to get ’em.

Sleepers

Chicago Cubs

Houston Astros (I’m not crazy, they were in on Shin-Shoo Choo)

The Cubs and Astros are in a similar position except the Cubs have more money. They are both rebuilding clubs that have completely almost complete tear downs and are now on an upward swing. They could each go after Tanaka for his potential, not what he is now. Maybe they bring him in and let him struggle and develop into the star they need. Then when these teams are ready to compete, sometime between 2015 and 2017, he’ll be ready to lead their staff on run to the World Series. I would say the Cubs have a better shot than the Astros, but the Astros could be like the Athletics with Yoenis Cespedes and spend a little bit more than usual.

Inside Trackers

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers

These are the two teams that have brought in the Japanese players before and should be looking to bring in Tanaka now. The Mariners have gone on a spending spree and should keep going if they want to contend this year. They have brought in plenty of Japanese talent and probably have the best inside track to signing Tanaka. The Rangers were the most recent team to bring in a Japanese star, Yu Darvish. They could use another starting pitcher to go with their rebuilt lineup. I would not be surprised to see them get into the action and try to bring another Japanese star into their rotation. They probably have an edge with Darvish being there and able to help Tanaka’s transition from Japanese to American culture.

Desperate Big Money Spenders

Los Angeles Angels

New York Yankees

This is easy. Both of these teams need pitching and have the spending power to just shove money in Tanaka’s face. I would suspect these are the two teams that lead the charge for Tanaka based on needs and money. The Angels’ only issue is if they sign Tanaka, they are going to continue to hurt their chances of signing Mike Trout. With Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton on the books for a long time, they might not want to put up a $20 million per year deal on the books.

My Prediction

Team officials involved in Tanaka sweepstakes say the Japanese star will cost a minimum of $17 million a year

Before I saw this tweet, I was going to say if the contract is lower than $15 million per year, he would be an Angel. Now that it appears he wants AT LEAST $17 million per year, I think he is a Yankee. No doubt about it. If I had to make a top 3 it would be this…